The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary 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 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
