The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
