The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that office in American history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
