The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty