The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics 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 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
