The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied 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 having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
