The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
