The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
