The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent 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 declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
