The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
