The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
