The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. While many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
