The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked 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 announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially 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 became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
