The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
