The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of that position in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
