The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father 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 opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in 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 hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
