Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Time in Office
The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of 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 presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
