The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion 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 having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, 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 contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
