The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
