The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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 participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed 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 regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
