The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty