The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, 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 participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
