The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief 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. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But 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 area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
