The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided 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 initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
