The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention 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 visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
