The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker'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 evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
