The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured 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. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
