The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, 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 shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
