The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators 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 praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
