The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although many VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier 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 post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
