The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After 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 announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
