The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
