The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea 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 quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
