The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication 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 background that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
