The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
