The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
