The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power 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: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
