The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired 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 declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
