The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker'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 background that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
