The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Even though 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 most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
