The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to 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 declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise 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 oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
