The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
