The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
