The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
