The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow 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 stated his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
