The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
