The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, 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 corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth 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 military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
