The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [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 was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
