The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
