The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force 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 malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
