The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
