The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become 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, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head 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 regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
