The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
