The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
