Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Government Service
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of that office in US history. While many VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely 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 come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
