The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
