The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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 attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
