The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired 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 stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
