Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Political Career
The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
