The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt 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 Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty