The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives 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 merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
