The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Although many VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
