The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
