The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker'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 evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
