The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared 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, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
