The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
