The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always 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 implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the bastards who killed 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 praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
