The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including 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, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices 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 not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
