The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators 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 enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power 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: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
