The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
