The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, 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 floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 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 imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
