The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion 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 reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
