The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
