The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
