The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
