The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that position in American history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
