The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
