The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
