The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
