The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
