The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
