The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
