The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
