The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
