The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
