The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
