The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
