The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
