The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
