The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House'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 later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
