The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
