The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured 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. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including 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, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
