The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
