The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
