The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
