The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author'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 corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
