The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author'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 evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
