The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked 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 announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
