The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
