The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators 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."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
