The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, 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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
