The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
