The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. While many VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
