The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
