The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes 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 earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
