The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
