The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but established relationships 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 chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
