The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the bastards 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist'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 evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
