The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
