The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
