The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
