The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 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 enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, 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 background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
