The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
