The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
