The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
