The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
