The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize 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 Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed 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 proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
