The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
