The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at 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 VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
