The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
