The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
