The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief 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 engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly 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 CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
