The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed 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 correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
