The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
