The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
