The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit 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 visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 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 reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
