The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
