The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response 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 meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication 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 background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
