The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
