The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction 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 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation 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.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
