The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
