The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove 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 declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
