The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
