The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects 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 right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
