One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Government Service
The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
