The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
