The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
