The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
