The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
