The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier 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 post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
