The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as 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.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
