The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
