One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Impactful Political Career
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
