The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally 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 president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
