The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
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 Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 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 credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
