The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
