The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 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 military action, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly 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 CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
