The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
