The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to 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 announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
