The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 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 labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
