The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
