The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
