The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
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 misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
