The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While countless VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
