The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
