The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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 taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
