The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
