The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. While many VPs were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
