The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author'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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
