The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
