The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author'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 corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty