The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion 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 participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
