The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames 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 cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
