The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
