The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion 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 gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
