The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
