The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said 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 disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed 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 right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling 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 observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing 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 initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in 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 hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
