The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
