The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
