The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief 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 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably 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 top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
