The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication 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 corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
