The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
