The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture 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 earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
