The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
