The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief 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 involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
