The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views 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 reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
