The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
