The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
