The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch 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 merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
