The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
