The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
