The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured military head 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. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
