The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief 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 Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
