The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
