The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover 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.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
