The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
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 millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
