The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
