The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, 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 shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
