The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that office in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
