The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
