The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
