The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
