The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However 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 not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
