The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along 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 pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed 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 announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
