The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
