The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior 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 position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
