The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief 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 participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
