The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
