The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking 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 most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
