The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept 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 quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
