The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling 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 witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
