The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
