The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, 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 lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
