The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
