The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
