The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
