The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction 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. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
