The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
