The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
