The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
