The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
