The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted 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 proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
