The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially 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 CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
