The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
