The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
