The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
