The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives 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 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion 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 background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty