The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes 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 traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
