The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
