The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
