The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty