The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
