Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Government Service
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
