The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 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 Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
