The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions 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 dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
