The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance 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 furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
