The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
