The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head 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 proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 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 Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
