The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives 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 earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
