The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action 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 visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
