The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication 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 background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty