The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
