The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, 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 shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
