The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the perpetrators 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 credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
