The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
