The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After 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 stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch 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 deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
