The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
