The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as 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. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
