The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
