The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
