The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
