The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
