The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
