The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
