The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures 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 praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
