The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
