Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Political Career
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
