The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
