The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although 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 perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
