The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
