The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that office in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
