The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
