The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
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 military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
