One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction 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 vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
