The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
