The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly 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 top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
