The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution 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 witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
