The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
