The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
