The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
