The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at 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 VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
