The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
