The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships 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 was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
