The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence 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 attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
