The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
