The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
