The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
