The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head 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 suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling 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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. 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 petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
