The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives 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 deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
