The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
But 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 representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
