The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not 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 misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
