The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
