The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
