The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest 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 awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
