The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
