The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though 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, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
