The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices 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 not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
