The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
