The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
