The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
