The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
