The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
