The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural 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 supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
