The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion 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 reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
