The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove 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 stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
