The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power 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 complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication 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 corner that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
