The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
