The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While many VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
