The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker'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 malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
