The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, 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 shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
