The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
