The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, 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 charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
