The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
