The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
