The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
