The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
