The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following 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 announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure 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 dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
