The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
