The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction 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 response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high 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 retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
