The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that office in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
