The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public 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 on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group 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 reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly 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 was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
