The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
