The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork 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 outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on 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 author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
