The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
