The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures 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 earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
