The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
