One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
