One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service
The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty