The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, 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 background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
