The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
