The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
