The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
