The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding 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 correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the individuals 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 recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
