The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
