The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
