The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased 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
