The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
