The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to 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 indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along 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 military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist'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 evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
