The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
