The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
