The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
