The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
