The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
