The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
