The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
