The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused 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 opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 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 praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
