The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
