The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
