The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
