The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
