The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker'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 evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
