The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, 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 predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
