The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
