The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
