The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
