The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary 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 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
