The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired 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 announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
