The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. While many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
