The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling 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: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
