The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
