The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
