The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
