The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
