The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
