The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following 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 stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
