The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although many VPs were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
