The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
