The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention 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 taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
