The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following 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 declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
