The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple 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 stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
