The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
