The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
