The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks 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 made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, 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 come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty