The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
