The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
