The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 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 recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
