The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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 taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication 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 corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
