The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution 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 witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
