The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
