The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist'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 sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
