The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
