The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty