The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
