The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
