The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
