The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
