The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief 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 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
