The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
