The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
