The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in American history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
