The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
