The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
