The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, 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 region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
