The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
