The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
