The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate 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 believe it now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor 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 recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture 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 earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably 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 CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
