The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons 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 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
