The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that office in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked 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 step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
