The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 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 Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
