The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, 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 background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
