The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed 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 armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
