Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office
The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially 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 became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty