The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
