The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
