The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
