Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
