The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, 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 not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent 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 recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
