The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume 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 corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
