The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
