Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Government Service
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although 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 largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
