The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
