The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
