The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
