The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
