The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
