The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary 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 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
