The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend 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 earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
