The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 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 based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
