The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
