The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head 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. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
