The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr 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 such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume 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 background that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
