The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that office in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
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 dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, 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 contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
