The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
