The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured 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 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
