The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 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. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on 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 leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
