The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
