The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
