The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
