The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
