The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
