The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
