The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions 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 saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
