The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions 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 position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
