The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
