Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Government Service
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, 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 operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty