The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
