The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief 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 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 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 enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
