The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After 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 declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
