The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
