The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge 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 additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing 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 background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
