The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
