The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
