The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, 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 background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
