The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
