The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
