The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
