The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
