The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea 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 quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
