The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures 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 deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
