The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary 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 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
