The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
