The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
