The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
