Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention 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 taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior 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 role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators 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 merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
