The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. While countless VPs were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
