Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Political Career
The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, 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 military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
