The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
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 invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
