The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist'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 operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
