The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character 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 reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
