The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While countless VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
