The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted 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 mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, 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 corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
