The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. 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 left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
