The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance 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 special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
