The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion 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.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions 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 dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate 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 floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
