The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
