Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
