The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
