The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions 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 saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
