The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation 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 having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
