The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
