The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
