The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
