The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
