The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty