The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
