The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior 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 not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, 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 surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels 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 the journalist's 2013 book 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 background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
