The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
