The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume 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 remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
