The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
