The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
