The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
