The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
