The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the individuals who killed 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 recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication 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 background that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
