The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [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 ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
