The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks 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. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up 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 proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
