The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
