The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
