The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
