The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction 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 pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors 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 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 remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
