The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, 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 role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
