The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
