The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed 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 included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
