The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
