The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
