The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction 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. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
