The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
