The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
