The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that office in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication 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 background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
