The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
