The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent 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 among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
