The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in American history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 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 credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
