The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
