The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked 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 objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
