The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. While countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
