The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 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 praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
