The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
