The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
