The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators 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."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
