The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards 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 earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
