The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, 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 remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
