The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
