The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
