The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
