The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
