The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
