The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views 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 reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, 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 surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
