The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion 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: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
