The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
