The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction 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 strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, especially 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 chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
