The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
