The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
