The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
