The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
