The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, 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 military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill 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 likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
