The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge 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 also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
