The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
