The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
