The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
