The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
