The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction 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 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
