The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, 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 written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power 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 operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
