The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
